Step 2: The Spirit of AI
Let me give you a handle on AI’s true nature.
Today's AI is predominantly generative AI, the kind you interact with every time you use ChatGPT, Alexa, Siri, and others.
This is a far cry from the old “Expert Systems” that followed coded 'if... then' statements.
Such a system might have responded to "Can you help me?" with something like: “Of course, how can I help you?”
It was all pre-programmed. It wasn't neural nets.
Neural networks at that time were barely able to recognize a character on a page. When they got good enough at that, the first legitimately useful neural-net application was rolled out: OCR (Optical Character Recognition), the ability to translate document images into text.
Now, neural nets are a very different beast. Not even the difference between the Wright Flyer and an F22 Raptor. More like a dandelion seed and an F22 Raptor.
The human brain has around 100 billion neurons and 1,000 trillion synapses.
Today, ChatGPT-4 has around 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion synapses.
Sound familiar?
It’s no wonder ChatGPT is matching human intelligence in IQ tests, and replacing humans in their jobs.
But it gets worse. Firstly, ChatGPT’s “brain” is plugged into the entire web. So while you might be a world-leading expert in quantum physics, ChatGPT could be a world-leading expert in everything.
And second: ChatGPT is an infant, ChatGPT4 is 'four years old' in a sense. Look at ENIAC - the world's first computer. Or the Apollo Computer, and the device in your hand that's smarter by orders of magnitude.
AI isn't limited to learning at human speed, or to evolving at DNA evolutionary speed. It can and will - when humans let it - evolve at the speed of AI, accelerated by the evolutionary pace of technology.
Still think your job’s safe?
To echo Sun Tzu, long before AI ever existed:
"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."
Time to start learning. Fast.
Good thing you’re here.